Hydraulic pressure automatic propulsion system



5 Sheets-Sheet 1 -W mm J. M. ADAMEK INVENTOR.

JOHN M. ADAMEK 1m sw m HYDRAULIC PRESSURE AUTOMATIC PROPULSION SYSTEM Jan. 12, 1965 Filed July 27, 1961 J. M. ADAMEK Jan. 12, 1965 HYDRAULIC PRESSURE AUTOMATIC PROPULSION SYSTEM 5 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed July 27 1961 V III/I596 INVENTOR.

JOHN M. ADAMEK Jan. 12, 1965 J. M. ADAMEK 3,165,069

HYDRAULIC PRESSURE AUTOMATIC PROPULSION SYSTEM Filed July 27, 1961 5 Sheets-Sheet 3 INVENTOR JOHN M. ADAMEK ATTORNEY k [I /////m/////////////////////////////////////////// Zm Jan. 12, 1965 J. M. ADAMEK 3,165,069

HYDRAULIC PRESSURE AUTOMATIC PROPULSION SYSTEM Filed July 27, 1961 5 Sheets-Sheet 4 DR! VEN l a K; E a r g H a; u

m i Q Q INVENTOR JOHN M. ADAMEK ATTORNEY Jan. 12, 1965 J. M. ADAMEK- 3,165,059

HYDRAULIC PRESSURE AUTOMATIC PROPULSION SYSTEM Filed July 27, 1961 s Sheets-Sheet 5 on VEN umr CONTROL 63 BY-PASS Q 2 g B INVENTOR JOHN M. ADAMEK ATTORNEY United States Patent ddii fiii Patented Jan. 12, 1%65 Cfilice 3,155,969 HYBRAULEC PRESEEURE AUTGMATKQ PROPULSEGN SYSTEM John M. Adan-rah, New York, N.Y., asslgnor to llaroniir Tobias, Rhinehech, NIX. Filed .lnly 27, 1961, Ser. No. 127,334 2 (Ilalms. (Cl. itl3-l6ll This invention relates to 'a hydraulic power transmission and particularly to hydraulic power transfer devices of the positive displacement type.

The driving and driven units embodying the present invention each have a rotating cylinder barrel providing radial cylinders for the working pistons. A11 eccentric reaction ring or track surrounds the cylinder barrel radially of the pistons. This reaction ring has its axis displaced from that of the cylinder barrel so that the eccentricity therebetween determines the stroke of the pistons as the cylinder barrel rotates. The pistons are provided with rollers on their outer ends for riding on tracks provided on the reaction ring. I

The invention also provides a stationary pintle shaft which rotatably supports the cylinder barrels of the driving and driven units and cooperates therewith to valve fluid to and from the cylinders; that is the pintle shaft has arcuate ports and each cylinder port alternately registers with the pintle ports.

An object of the invention is the provision of a stationary pintle shaft for rotatably supporting the cylinder barrels of a radial piston fluid power transfer device.

Another object of the invention is the provision of rollers on the ends of the pistons for thrust engagement with tracks on a reaction ring.

Another object of the invention is the provision of a power transmission including rotatable cylinder barrels for the driving and driven units with both cylinder barrels rotatably supported on a common shaft which serves as a pintle that valves fluid to and from each of the cylinder barrels p v Another object of the invention is the provision of a power transmission comprising rotating cylinder barrel units supported on a common pintle shaft, or on individual pintle shafts, if the units are remotely located.

As a practical example of an object of invention, a single drivin unit could be used to independently drive each of the wheels of a motor vehicle, or a plurality of boat propellors.

Other objects and avdantages will be apparent from the following description taken with the'accompanying drawings, in which:

FIGURE 1 is a view in elevation and partly in crosssection, taken along the line 1-1 of FIG. 3 of a hydraulic power transmission embodying the present invention;

FIGURE 2 is a plan view with the housing broken away and in section of the transmission of FIG. 1;

FIGURE 3 is a view taken along line 33 of FIG. 1,

FIGURE 4 is a view of the pintleshaft .of the transmission;

FIGURES 5 and 6 are details of a piston and thrust supporting pin of FIG. 3;

FIGURE 7 is a schematic of the hydraulic'circuit for the transmission of FIGURES 1 and 2.

FIGURE Sis a schematic view of the hydraulic circuit, including a reversing mechanism.

Referring to the drawing, FIGS. 1, 2, and 3 show a power transmission embodying the present invention.

The power transmission comprises two disc type aggregates, a driving aggregate shown as a pump 11 and a driven aggregate shown as a motor 1'2. The two aggregates are identically constructed, except for differences in mounting, hereinafter described and thus only aggregate 11 is shown in full detail. The aggregates are shown supported within a common housing 13, and interconnected by short fiuid conduit within the housing. It is, however, a feasible and an important part of the present invention to substitute for the short fluid conduits shown between the two aggregates conduits elongated many times the diameter of the aggregates up to tens or even hundreds of yards and to separate the driving and the driven aggregates to provide motor power to a rotary load device, remotely positioned relatively to the driving aggregate pump.

That is, the invention has application to the transfer of rotary power to a remote location, and the embodiment delineated in PEG. 1 and PEG. 2, wherein the input shaft 18 and the output shaft 26 are in substantial coaxial alignment, and the entire transmission enclosed with a compact housing 13, is to be considered as illustrative rather than restrictive. In general, .the' driving unit and the driven unit of transmission may be separated by long fluid conduits, and the relative angular orientation of input and output shafts may conform to the requirements of any specific application. If the conduits connecting the driving and driven units are made flexible,

, it is feasible to change the relative angular orientation of the input and output shafts during operation, 0r to compensate for peroidic misalignment of one or both units during operation, as for instance when either unit is subject to severe vibrations.

The invention may be generally described as a hydrauic analogy to an electrical self-synchronous servo-mechanism of the amplidyne type. In line with this analogy it is entirely feasible to use asingle driving unit to drive a plurality of driven units in synchronism. However, the invention includes the capability, not characteristic of the electrical analogy, that the driven or'slave units may be concurrently or independently controlled for'variation or reversal of output angular velocity.

A stationary pintle shaft 16 is rigidly supported in the mid-portion of the housing, and one end of the pintle shaft rotatably supports a driving cylinder barrel 1'7 within driving aggregate 11 and the other end similarly supports a driven cylinder barrel within driven aggregate E2. The driving aggregate end is axially aligned with an input shaft 18 rotatably supported by hearing 19 in the housing and adapted for connection to a prime mover.

such as an electric motor, not shown. The input shaft 18 has a drive flangefll from which axially extending lugs 22 project into radial slots 23 in the end face of an externally tapered sleeve 15 that is pressed into the cylinder barrel l7.

An output shaft 26 is supported similarly to the input shaft in bearings 19 in the other end of the housing and similarly coupled to its cylinder barrel. The output shaft 26 is adapted for connection to a rotary load device, not shown.

The sleeve 15 for cylinder barrel 17 has a bore for receiving the pintle shaft 16. The inner periphery of the sleeve 15 for the cylinder barrel is lined with an antifriction metal sleeve 27 rigidly secured therein to prevent wear on the cylinder bore and on the pintle shaft. A plurality of radially arranged cylinders 28 are provided by radial bores through the cylinder barrel 17 connected to aligned radial passages in sleeve 15 and-through the Wear sleeve 27. A piston 29 is fitted in each cylinder 23 for reciprocable movement therein. The radially inner ends of the cylinder bore-aligned passages in the wear sleeve 27 provide cylinder ports 28:: each of which alends of the pistons.

ternately registers with inlet port 31 and outlet port 32 in the pintle which ports are provided by a pair of circumferentially spaced slots in the periphery of the driving disc end of the pintle shaft 16.

Preferably, the number of cylinders in the cylinder barral is an odd number, such as seven, nine, or eleven, so that only one cylinder port 28a, at a time is crossing a land 33 or bridge between the valve ports in the pintle shaft.

Each piston 29 is part of a piston assembly comprising, besides the piston, a connecting rod 34, a roll-er supporting axle 36 provided by a pin extending transversely through a collar 35 on the free end of the piston rod. This is shown in FIGS. and 6. A pair of rollers 37 are mounted on the ends of the axle on opposite sides of the connecting rod 34. A pair of annular side or shield plates 33, 39 are mounted on the cylinder barrels on opposite sides of the connecting rods 34 and pistons 29.

The radially outer periphery of these side plates have notches 41 therein through which the roller supporting axle 36 extends, and these notches have a depth to accommodate the maximum stroke of the pump which causes the axle 36 to move radially in and out in the clearance provided.

A reaction ring 42 for the pump pistons is provided by an annular ring which is disposed around the cylinder barrel. A pair of axially spaced annular tracks 43, 4-4 are formed on the inner periphery of the reaction ring 42 for thrust engagement with the rollers 37 on the free Centrifugal force and supercharge pressure from a fluid pressure prime pump 46 or source urge the pistons radially outward and maintain the piston rollers in contact with the annular tracks of the reaction ring.

The reaction ring 4?. is positioned eccentrically with respect to the cylinder barrel 17 by means of a hand wheel operable screw control which consists of a large screw 47 that is rotatably supported in abutment with the housing 13 and threaded through a flange 52. on the reaction ring 42. for moving the screw. A compression spring may be disposed on the diametrically opposite side of the reaction ring to react against the housing 13 for urging the reaction ring toward the hand wheel screw 47 although a stop screw 48 is shown. The reaction ring is provided with side flanges having horizontally extending rail surfaces 51, which rest on antifriction hearings or sliding surfaces 53 in opposing horizontal rail surfaces in the housing. These rail surfaces extend horizontally and transversely of the axis of rotation.

Gther types of control may be employed to conform to the spirit of the present invention and are not shown.

Operation pling therebetween.

When the axis of the reaction ring 42 and the axis of the cylinder barrel 17 coincide, the driving disc is at neutral and no reciprocating motion of the pistons can occur. When the axis of the reaction ring 42 is displaced from the axis of the cylinder barrel 17, the resulting eccentricity determines the stroke of the pistons. Displacement in one direction from neutral results in the discharge of fluid which may be liquid or gaseous, to one of the valve ports 31 or 32 in the pintle shaft; and displacement in the opposite direction from neutral, results in the discharge of fluid to the other of these ports, and thus motive fluid is applied to the driven unit 12 to drive it in one direction or a reverse direction.' The amount of eccentricity determines the stroke of the pistons, the amount of fluid discharged and the speed of the driven unit.

The working parts of the driven unit 12 are the same as those of the driving unit it. Motive fluid supplied to an inlet port of the driven end of the pintle shaft forces the pistons over that port radially outward and the reaction on its reaction ring causes the driven unit cylinder barrel to rotate in one direction. If the driving unit eccentricity is reversed, the motive fluid is supplied to a diametrically opposed port and the driven unit is forced to rotate in a reverse direction.

A minimum required back pressure is maintained on the fluid power system at all times by a prime pump 46 which is connected to both input and output lines through check valves 56, 57 so that either line serving as pump suction or inlet is pressurized up to the pressure setting of the relief valve 58 for the auxiliary pump.

In the schematic circuit shown in FIGURE 7 the driven unit 12 is shown supplied with motive fluid from the driving unit 11. Prime pump 46 which is actually disposed in the common housing 13 may be driven by a suitable connection to the prime mover for the transmission or may be driven by a separate prime mover such as an electric motor, not shown.

Prime pump discharge conduit 54 is divided into two branch conduits 54$, 69 which are connected respectively to the transmission lines 61. 67; between the driving and driven units. Branch lines 59, 56 each include a check valve 5:; or 57, respectively, which permit flow only from the prime pump to a transmission line. Any excess flow from the prime pump is returned to reservoir 1-; through the relief valve 58 which limits the pressure in line 54 to a predetermined relatively low value. Any other suitable means to maintain a minimum pressure in the transmission lines is included in the scope of the invention, including, for example, the use of a pneumatically powered makeup pump with integral discharge pressure control.

The transmission line 61, is rovided by axial bores la and 61b and line 62 is provided by a pair of axial bores 62a and 62b. These bores 51a, 61b, 62a and 62b are closed at opposite ends by suitable plugs 35 and these bores open respectively to the valve ports 31 and .32 in the pintle shaft at both the driving and driven ends of the unit.

When the driving unit it has been adjusted for any predetermined stroke or rate of fluid discharge, the driven unit displacement also being similarly adjusted, the rate of flow of motive fluid thereoetween is controlled by a manually operable bypass valve 63 shown in a closed position in FIG. 7. The valve is opened in accordance with movement of the valve slide 64 to the right from the position shown, to thereby shunt pump discharge between the transmission lines 61, 62 to decrease the rate of flow to the driven unit 12.

In an alternative construction the bypass valve 63 may be replaced by a multi-channel valve which effectively interchanges the transmission lines 61 and 62 between the driving and driven units, with the object of eflecting a rapid reversal of the driven unit.

In FIG. 8, such an arrangement is shown, wherein advancement or retraction of the slider 66 of the valve assembly 57 reverses the channel connections between driving and driven units and effects a reversal of the driven unit.

Although but one embodiment of the present invention has been shown and described, modifications and changes may be made therein without departing from the invention defined by the appended claims.

I claim:

1. A positive displacement radial piston fluid pressure generator comprising a housing, a stationary pintle shaft rigidly supported in said housing, a rotatable cylinder barrel mounted for rotation about said sationary pintle shaft and having radially arranged cylinders, pistons reciprocable in said cylinders, said cylinders having cylinder passages open to said pintle shaft, said pintle shaft having diametrically opposite arcuate inlet and outlet ports formed in the periphery thereof with Which said cylinder passages alternately register as the cylinder barrel rotates, said pintle shaft having axially extending inlet and outlet passages connected respectively with said inlet and outlet ports, an input shaft rotatably supported in said housing and drivingly coupled to said cylinder barrel, a reaction ring disposed about said cylinder barrel and displaceable transversely with respect to the axis of rotation of said barrel, means for shifting said ring transversely to thereby vary the eccentricity of said reaction ring relative to said cylinder barrel, anti friction means on the radial outer end of said pistons, track means on said reaction ring for sliding engagement with said anti friction means, a supercharging pump having pressure outlet lines connected to said inlet passage and said outlet passage of said pintle, and maintaining a pressure head in said passages in excess of the pressure needed to constantly maintain said anti friction means of said pistons against said track means, and a check valve interposed in said outlet lines of said supercharger pump to maintain the fluid pressure in said supercharger pump below a predetermined level.

2. A fluid pressure generator in accordance with claim 1, wherein said housing forms a reservoir and said supercharger pump is located in the same housing as said pressure generator, and is fed by the same fluid reservoir which feeds said housing.

References Cited by the Examiner UNlTED STATES PATENTS 11/ 13 Hole-Shaw 60-53 1/ 28 Thoma 60-53 4/33 Maw 60-53 12/37 Benedek 121-61 2/39 Glenn 60-53 11/40 Bischot 60-53 5/ 4-2 Mast 60-52 12/42 Eden et al 91-205 X l/ VlCliCIS -53 1 9/57 Rydberg 60-53 X 5/60 Wadefelt 121-61 6/61 Gardineer 103-161 11/61 Tomell 103-161 FOREIGN PATENTS 4/44 France. 1/55 Great Britain. 3/52 Italy.

OTHER REFERENCES British Application, 363,331, published 1932.

EDGAR \V. GEOGHEGAN, Primary Examiner.

JULIUS E. WEST, Examiner. 

1. A POSITIVE DISPLACEMENT RADIAL POSTON FLUID PRESSURE GENERATOR COMPRISING A HOUSING, A STATIONARY PINTLE SHAFT RIGIDLY SUPPORTED IN SAID HOUSING, A ROTATABLE CYLINDER BARREL MOUNTED FOR ROTATION ABOUT SAID STATIONARY PINTLE SHAFT AND HAVING RADIALLY ARRANGED CYLINDERS, PISTONS RECIPROCABLE IN SAID CYLINDERS, SAID CYLINDRS HAVING CYLINDER PASSGES OPEN TO SAID PINTLE SHAFT, SAID PINTLE SHAFT HAVING DIAMETRICALLY OPPOSITE ARCUATE INLET AND OUTLET PORTS FORMED IN THE PERIPHERY THEREOF WITH WHICH SAID CYLINDER PASSAGES ALTERNATELY REGISTER AS THE CYLINDER BARREL ROTATES, SAID PINTLE SHAFT HAVING AXIALLY EXTENDING INLET AND OUTLET PASSAGES CONNECTED RESPECTIVELY WITH SAID INLET AND OUTLET PORTS, AN INPUT SHAFT ROTATABLY SUPPORTED IN SAID HOUSING AND DRIVINGLY COUPLED TO SAID CYLINDER BARREL, A REACTION RING DISPOSED ABOUT SAID CYLINDER BARREL AND DISPLACEABLE TRANSVERSELY WITH RESPECT TO THE AXIS OF ROTATION OF AID BARREL, MEANS FOR SHIFTING AND RING TRANSVERSELY TO THEREBY VARY THE ECCENTRICITY OF SAID REACTION RING RELATIVE TO SAID CYLINDER BARREL, ANTI FRICTION MEANS ON THE RADIAL OUTER END OF SAID PISTONS, TRACK MEANS ON SAID REACTION RING FOR SLIDING ENGAGEMENT WITH SAID ANTIFRICTION MEANS, A SUPERCHARGING PUMP HAVING PRESSURE OUTLET LINES CONNECTED TO SAID INLET PASSAGE AND SAID OUTLET PASSAGE OF SAID PINTLE, AND MAINTAINING A PRESSURE HEAD IN SAID PASSAGES IN EXCESS OF THE PRESSURE NEEDED TO CONSTANTLY MAINTAIN AND ANTI FRICTION MEANS, OF SAID PISTONS AGAINST SAID TRACK MEANS, AND A CHECK VALVE INTERPOSED IN SAID OUTLET LINES OF SAID SUPERCHARGER PUMP TO MAINTAIN THE FLUID PRESSURE IN SAID SUPERCHARGER PUMP BELOW A PREDETERMINED LEVEL. 